My family is just getting home from a four day trip to the Carolina coast. It was a nice getaway. The weather was beautiful and the ocean clear and sparkling.
I packed my computer along with the bathing suits, sunscreen and sand buckets. I had a vague thought that our hotel provided free wireless Internet access.
As it turned out the hotel charges a daily fee for Internet access and its wired. Our first day I thought about looking up the location of some local sites, but was too busy swimming in the pool and looking for sea pebbles to get the computer out. The second day my husband and I were trying to come up with the name of the 1980’s show about lifeguards. “Wish I could Google it,” I thought to myself. We asked our waitress at dinner instead. I caught up on some reading while the kids were swimming and thought about some posting I wanted to do, but we went to play jungle golf instead. My youngest asked if she could play a game on the Internet that afternoon, but we went back to the pool instead. That evening I did some work for church after the kids were in bed. I thought about posting my spreadsheet to GoogleDocs, but turned off the computer instead.
By the end of the third day I wasn’t missing the Internet and its endless opportunities. I embraced the lack of access and absence of multitasking. I felt a peace settle over my mind and enjoyed a quiet evening walk on the beach. I think I’m glad they didn’t have free wireless. But maybe they will have it next year. : )
Image from Flickr Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paphio/236563104/
